AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘You know what it is?’ Kal asks from the end of the bed.
‘Felt it coming,’ I hear myself say. ‘It happened … on the way to Alcana, too.’
I feel Dane sigh. ‘Then you know you need this.’
I open my mouth reluctantly, looking away as Grey puts the bitter root syrup on my tongue. I swallow it.
‘Good girl,’ Dane says so quietly I’m not sure I was meant to hear him.
‘Where are we?’ I ask, feeling a bit more awake but exhausted.
The fear begins to fade away as my mind clears.
‘Eighth circle, we think,’ Grey answers, sitting in a chair next to the bed. ‘That last one was a long trip through the Breach.’
‘Which is probably why you got gate sick so acutely as soon as we got here,’ Dane says.
I hear reproach in his voice.
‘What would you have said if I told you I wasn’t feeling well?’ I mutter. ‘You’d probably never even heard of Gate sickness.’
The fae males in the room are silent, and I chuckle a little. ‘You know it’s true.’
I snuggle down into the bed with a sigh. ‘I want my clothes back,’ I murmur with a yawn, pointedly ignoring the small circles Kallum is drawing with his fingertips on my ankle over the blanket from the foot of the bed.
‘She seemed better once she woke properly,’ I hear Grey say.
‘Aye,’ Dane answers.
* * *
The next I know, there’s a knock at the door, and I’m sitting up with wide eyes, my mind scrambling to remember where I am. When I see The Cunty Trio are all in the room with me, I relax. They want me alive. They won’t let anyone hurt me … not unless it’s each other.
‘It’s Healer Reyn,’ a voice says from the other side of the door.
Grey glances at me and then gives Dane a look I can’t decipher. But Dane takes hold of my chin gently and turns my head to look at him.
I immediately try to struggle out of his grasp, and he sighs.
‘Keep still, or I’ll make you,’ he says, but it’s without anger.
Afraid he’ll use magick on me, I freeze. He frowns a little but continues once he’s sure he has my attention.
‘There’s no time to explain properly now,’ he says quietly, ‘but whatever this healer says to you, agree. Pretend to still be half asleep and don’t answer any questions. We’ve learned since getting here that things aren’t like they were seven years ago when it comes to humans in the Dark Realms, so unless you want to get stuck here as an actual slave, heed my words and do as you’re told.’
My eyes search his for lies, but I don’t see any in his open expression. The healer knocks again, and I lay back, pulling the covers as high as they’ll go quickly.
Dane gets up and opens the door.
From my half-open eyes, I watch a gangly, older goblin walk in. A brown-haired girl trails after him, clothed in a long linen dress that matches the color of the goblin’s robes, though in a lighter tone of blue. She stands by the wall, looking down at the floor.
He surveys the room. ‘How’s the patient?’ he asks immediately, coming over to me.
I feign sleep.
‘She woke for the first time this morning,’ Dane tells him, moving the nearby chair, ‘but she was confused and distraught.’ He says the last almost angrily.
The healer nods, peeling back the cover a little, and I tense, afraid he’s going to remove it completely, but he doesn’t. ‘There’s more color in her complexion,’ he remarks, sounding pleased. ‘and you’ve been giving her the Frena Root?’
